2018 Year in Review

At the beginning of 2018, Feast Native wasn’t even on the radar for us. It wasn’t until we were in the car driving away from Peachtree Catering’s January Sunday Supper, where we had a couple drinks and some delicious Thai inspired food, that we got to thinking we could make this work.

Ultimately it wasn’t, and still isn’t, exclusively about the food. Food is just the catalyst. But, unlike other food critics and/or blogs that focus exclusively on whether or not they liked the food they were served at any given restaurant, we thought that was too easy. It’s too easy to love something and hate something else. We are all preferential beings and we all like different things. That’s why we turned the lens on the people.

A squirrel might get lucky planting an oak tree now and then, but a seed isn’t planted, loved, grown, nurtured and harvested without some human interaction. And that harvested product certainly isn’t making its way to your table without some inspired chef cooking, braising, chopping, searing, grilling, mashing, grinding, or simply just displaying it for you before you actually eat it. Unfortunately, we have too often lost the knowledge of where our food comes from, how it got to be in front of us, and who actually planted it, butchered it, or stocked it on the grocery store shelf.

As we progressed through 2018, our focus changed from telling the stories of the farmers, chefs, bakers and makers to championing their success and achievements. Not just listening to their origin stories, but being passionate about their work as well.

The people we have featured this year make up our community. We have dreams of taking Feast Native outside of Missouri (which we dipped into with a feature from San Diego) but we realize these are the people we are passionate about. And there are so many more stories to tell in our backyard. New restaurants, new chefs, new farmers, new makers, and new people who are passionate about what they are creating that we haven’t told yet. If this sounds like you, let us know!

In 2019, we want to hear your story and be a champion for you too. Reach out to us so we can be a voice to help you along the path to success, whatever that may look like for you. And thank you to everyone who let us in their doors, onto their farms, and behind the scenes in 2018. We know that takes trust in a small blog just getting started and we hope we continue to earn your trust!

Enjoy some of our favorite photos from this year and if you missed some of our posts, please make yourself at home and let us know which feature was your favorite this year on social media!